Memory Jars

I can't believe it's almost 2017.  A couple of days to go... I wanted to share a little project I created for my family.  We hosted Christmas and I made these memory jars for anyone that wanted one.  I cut out the numbers using my Silhouette and vinyl, and placed them on the outside of a mason jar ($1 at Michaels plus a teacher discount), then added a little ribbon on top.  We've done this in my little family for a couple of years - when big moments happen that I want to remember, I write them down on a small piece of paper, and then place inside.  On New Years eve we open the jar and reread the slips.  It's nice to remember those moments that are sometimes forgotten in the craziness of life.   

This time around my boys want to use their jars for coin collecting (since they have now learned that the Coinstar machines will turn their spare change into an Amazon gift card).  I'm also thinking of using a jar to have the kids place their New Year's resolutions in and then compare them at the end of the year.  Since I love the look of Mason jars, the more the merrier around here.

I hope you have a great day! 

Book Bite Book Report Pictures

I wanted to share some of the most aww-inspiring Book Bites Book Report Projects from this year's batch.  So creative!  Once again, my class used the Book Report pack from The Peanut Gallery.  The premise is that the kids have to come up with a type of meal that has "bites" to it.  Each bite has to have specific information - like setting, characters, plots, etc... and all writing is to be hidden underneath the bite.  Everything is explained in the project directions and it really is an easy print and go project.  Highly recommend it if you are looking for a creative book report.  

When I first discuss the project with my students I always use her student sample pictures (they are included in the packet)... but then I also pull out the 3D hamburger and taco that past students have given me to show off.  I also pulled up last year's images to show my kids (Yes, I show them my blog).  That's what really sparks the interest... "You mean so & so made that?"  I give the students 6 weeks to complete this project.  1 week to get their parent to sign off that they read the directions, 1 week to choose a book, 4 weeks to read the book, and 2 to work on the project.... That's just me though.  

Okay - pictures of this year's Book Buffet. 

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This child used construction paper, but they used a donut box to showcase it.

This child used styrofoam with felt for their hamburger.

This breakfast was made out of foam.  I thought it clever to use a zip tie to keep all the pieces attached to the paper plate.  

Pizza is always a winner.  This was served in a pizza box and the clay was glazed to make it rock hard.  

This child used model magic to form pancakes and served it on a tray.  

An In and Out burger, drink, and fries is always a winner.  There was felt pieces to form the different layers.  

A birthday cake, complete with a candle and sprinkles.  :)  This child was creative and used velcro to attach the pieces together.  

This styrofoam cake's layers and filling were split to hide the writing.  Cakes are almost always served in a cake box.  

Super cute, right?!  Of course I had 24 more projects that also came in that also showed off my students' hard work.  Some used just construction paper, and that was just fine.  Very proud of them.  Hope this helps someone.  

Finding Balance {Freebie}

Balance... a word that I'm NOT good at.  Once again it's going to be a goal to aim for this coming school year.

I found this old whiteboard in our garage (doesn't every teacher have a whiteboard in their garage?), so I used ribbon to divide it up into 4 sections.  Then I made up these headers to stick into the corners.

That weekly plan whiteboard is something I found at a thrift store.  I decided to put "home" on that since it is portable and my goal is to aim for one house thing a day.  Splitting up the laundry, etc...

This is sitting on a bookshelf in our bedroom/office area.  Just a little reminder of that balance I'm searching for.

Hope it helps someone.  Have a great day!

Monday Made It: Week 6

Week 6 already?! Once again I'm linking up with Tara to share what I've been up to.  

This past week we went to sell our old car (since we don't need 3 cars at the moment), and couldn't easily find the title.  It was time to go through 12 years of files and get rid of tons of paperwork.  10 file drawers later, they are all now color coded and organized by topic (health, employment, bills, banks, auto, education/college, home, insurance, etc).  My husband just laughed when I broke out the neon labels, new file folders, freezer ziploc bags (for all those old statements to save), and banker boxes.  We filled up 3 large laundry baskets of stuff to toss, another 2 big boxes of stuff to shred, and have gone down to the basics.  Big project DONE!

BINDER UPDATES

I have a lot of reading graphic organizers that I have purchased and created.  I took one of my old 3 inch binders and put a copy of each of them inside, organized by skill.  If possible I printed them 2 per page (to save copies) before putting them in sheet protectors, and then added the sticky tabs to the edges so it's easy to flip and copy. 

This next one is an old made it from last year - I have another huge binder that I have dividers labeled with student numbers.  I kept student info, conference sheets, goal sheets, student notes, etc. in each area.  I went through it, pulled out the old stuff, and got it ready to fill with the new batch of kids.  I have 32 kids, so the extra back dividers are extra conferring, fluency, etc. pages.  

  

I'm really into word walls.  I love the visual reminders, and want my boys to start memorizing scripture too.  I have tons of these frames, but I'm not in a hurry to fill them all up.  I took out the inside paper, added a beige card stock fit to the frame, and wrote out difference scriptures.  Then I hot glued black ribbon on the back and they are ready to hang upstairs.

  

This summer it's been hard to be motivated to work on school stuff.  My husband says it's good that I'm relaxing, have been reading tons of books, but I'm starting to have panic attacks about not getting everything done in time.  This week I did make up my new HW folders.  Before school got out, I had my helper girls add 4 sheet protectors to each plastic folder.  The first protector is still empty (I'm going to have them do a goal thing in it that first week of school), but I filled up the other pages.

Page 2 has a front/back CA Common Core Standards Sheets.  I want the kids to cross off when they have mastered the different standards.  These are from edventuring.weebly.com - I found them on TPT, but can't find them since I downloaded off my wish list.  

Page 3 has a cursive alphabet on the front, and Teaching in Room 6's HW sheet on the back.  

Page 4 has our Rowley Multiplication Sheet (mixed facts) on the front, and division is on the back for home fact practice.  

Okay - I'm off to play more of the game - Let's Rearrange the Furniture!  New couches are coming tonight, so we had to move our old couches around, which meant moving a desk upstairs, which meant moving the storage thing out of my son's room to the hallway closet, which means moving the bookshelf out of the closet, and setting up a new desk area downstairs for 2 boys to use.... It never stops!

Have a great day!

Monday Made It: Recipe, Home Improvement, Backyard Decor

What a busy week!  Linking up with Tara to share what I've been making!  

This week I made up my Dad's meatballs - it was super hot and I didn't want to cook.  It's the easiest recipe, but it's so yummy that my boys eat 2+ servings at a sitting.  3 ingredients thrown in the crockpot...  frozen meatballs and equal parts of chili sauce and grape jelly.  Just put on low for a few hours and it becomes bubbly and delicious!  

My sister bought her first town home this past week.  I am so proud of her!  It was built in the late 1980's and some of the decorating choices weren't exactly what she wanted.  :)  I helped out at her house all week long... cleaning, organizing, moving boxes, unpacking boxes, installing new flooring in her pantry, new corkboard on her shelves, contact paper in drawers, making trips to Home Depot for new toilet seats, etc... The flooring above is actually peel and stick heavy tiles.  It could have been grouted, but we decided to just put it directly next to each other.  What a difference it made!   

My home made it is actually for my backyard.  I saw an idea on Pinterest, and wanted to make something that meant something for my family.  All in all the project was super cheap - just little stakes, some outdoor paint, and a stencil.  When it was all done, I decided I wanted to hang it up, so I used a staple gun with garden wire to make a loop at the top - stapling each stake twice - one on each side.  The Pinterest idea had them nailed into a board to stick in the ground, but I was afraid the nails would split the stakes so I went with the staple gun.    

Mission Reports/Project Have Been Handed Out!

Today we finished up our Mission booklets.  I am so glad that they are DONE!!

What is a Mission Booklet?  It's a piece of large construction paper folded in half with this cover on top.  The clip art came from free images on Google.

Inside the little booklet I have the kids stick a Mission Map of our state of CA.  It's from images on Google.

Then the kids added 7 binder pages behind the map in their booklets and we wrote facts from the below website, each mission using 1/2 of the page (4 missions total per page front and back).

California Missions Resource Center

I love using this website because it has so much information, but it also has a slideshow with "real life" pictures about each mission.  Everyday for the past 21 school days the kids have written about the mission of the day and then we would watch the slideshow together.  On the map we write the mission #.

Now today we finished, and it was time to pass out the official 4th grade Mission Report and Project.  I pass it out at this point in time since so many families travel to the missions over the holiday break.  The project and report are not due until the end of January for my class.

  I uploaded the pages to TPT in case you want to check them out.  

The above is the link to the 3 page Report and Project.

This is the grade sheet I use.

It's completely free since I know every classroom is different with this project and people will probably only download to get ideas for their own classrooms.  I hope it helps!

2 days to go...

Cereal Box Book Report

There have been many projects going on in my classroom as we ended the First Trimester.

Above is one of my talented students with her Cereal Box Book Report.  When I switched to 4th grade, I spent that summer going through a ton of websites looking for "fun" activities to do to enrich the curriculum.  I ran across the idea for a Cereal Box Book Report at Mrs. Pearce's Class Website.

*Updated to add that the link that I had doesn't work for her website, so I found the templates free to download on the blog below. 

Here are the templates that I found on Room 10's blog.  It's a free download.

Basically here's the idea...

I send home a little explanation note to the parents and I give them a month to work on the project in case they need time to read a larger chapter book.  I have them choose a fiction book (since our Spring Book Report is a non-fiction/Biographical).

*Front of the box: Include the name of the cereal and a picture. Invent a name for the cereal that is related to the title of the book and sounds like a cereal. Do not use the exact title of the book.

*Back of the box - Students need to design a game that is based on the story. It can be a puzzle, a word search, a word scramble, a maze, a crossword puzzle, a hidden pictures illustration, or any other fun activity that might be found on the back of a cereal box. Make sure it includes information from the book.

*Left side of the box:  Students have to write a summary of their book.

*Top of the box: Students need to write the name of the book, the author, number of pages, and they must give the book a rating.  

*Right side of the box:  Students need to write the "ingredients" of their book - the characters and setting.

*Prize: Cereal boxes often include a prize. Your prize must be something the main character could have used in the book or something that reminds you of the main character. You can even include a picture of the prize on the front of your box to let the reader know what is inside the box. 

Now, my students also had to give an oral presentation for when they came up front to share their cereal.  Over the years I have seen a bunch of very creative "commercials".  

I hope this helps someone!